Hey, everyone! My first post here. I have a 2004 Cypress Pearl that I've had for about a year now. 127k miles.

I still have it under extended warranty, so I just took it in for a full suspension rebuild. Ball joints, bushings, control arms, sway bar links, struts, etc. Full price I was quoted was $6600.

I'm super glad I have the warranty, because my deductible is only $250! It's gonna feel like a brand new car after this.

Only thing they won't cover are struts, which I plan on doing myself. I've found some detailed threads on here, so I think it shouldn't be too bad. Any of you done them before?

Glad to be a part of this community.

 

I wish I had my LS under warranty to get all this done.. Good stuff though, should feel brand new after your done. I also plan on doing struts in the near future and from what I understand it should be pretty straightforward assuming you've wrenched on card before. I plan on replacing my struts with OEM sport struts which are actually cheaper than standard struts for some reason.

Keep us posted on how the car feels once all this is done, and welcome to the forum.

 

If you're not replacing with OEM Lexus parts, your ride will probably be better for 5-10k miles, then once the aftermarket parts wear out, you'll be worse off than before. I can't see a 124k mile lexus needing anything other than struts at that age/mileage. Just beware what you are being told by your mechanic

 

Wise words!
Who is replacing these parts? If it's not the dealer you could easily end up with a $15 ball joints and $9 tie rods (examples) all made in China.
Remember these are the parts that keep the car moving safely in a straight line...

 

Very true. It is a performance shop I know and trust, so there's no issue with cheap parts. They're getting a chunk of money from the warranty company, so it's not like they would try to scam me out of cash.

 

Your Ball joints, tie rods, and other bits are not worn out at 124k miles. Unless your shop is Lexus, they're using cheap chinese parts, and you'll be worse off 6 months from now. Mark my words !

 

I used cheap aftermarket control arms, ball joints and struts on my LS400 and have over 100K miles of trouble free service on them so far. I just replaced struts, upper and lower control arms and ball joints on my LS430 and expect similar results. The price difference in parts from Lexus was over $3000. Paying those prices would make me consider whether the car is worth keeping. Maybe I've just been lucky but I've never had a failure with an aftermarket part. Part of good engineering is creating good specifications and if parts are built to Lexus specifications they should perform as such. I've seen plenty of stuff online about bad aftermarket but never had any first hand experience. I'd like to see some hard data on this, like failure rates, percent out of tolerance, counterfeit materials, etc. Part of the reason for the high price of dealer parts is they aren't in the parts business and have extremely high overhead and distribution costs. Their manufacturing costs aren't much different from the aftermarket, otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell cars for what they do.

 

$6600... Who comes up with these ridiculous numbers. Less than $1k on RockAuto.

 

Any component, including OEM, may perform badly if initial installation wasn’t done in a right way. Such a rebuild requires lots of preparation and post-Installation work, including reset and full scale alignment. Aftermarket parts, even made in China, may still go a long way if steps are followed from A to Z.

Simple example - installation of upper control arm and tightening bushings at the wrong height will reduce their life.

Is it possible to see the invoice for this repair?

 

Here is the invoice. The warranty would not cover struts, sway bar links, and a few other things, so the total came down to about $3500. Not bad for only paying $250 out of pocket!! I will be doing the struts myself soon.

 

Haha, that was ghe total for all the repairs it needed, labour included. Actual total came down to $3500.

 

My ball joints DEFINITELY were worn out, and the rest was covered under warranty, so why not have them replace them while it's free? And cheap parts, they were not.

 

Okay, just picked up the car!!! Man, what a difference. No more clunking, car feels much more substantial and refined. Warranty didn't cover struts, and I can now feel how they are beginning to wear, but it already feels so much better.

Next up: struts, sway bar links, brakes and rotors, spark plugs, wheel arch liner, minor cosmetic things...

 

Thank you for posting the invoice. Good to see that they performed the job at the satisfactory for you level. Enjoy the new ride .

I wish it would be called a full suspension rebuild, hehehe. Remember, struts are crucial for a ride quality, but also the invoice seems to indicate that no work has been in rear, which cuts the “full suspension job” to “front suspension job”.

Thankfully to Lexus engineers, the rear suspension is extremely solid and was designed to survive several hundred thousands of miles.

 

Yes, you are right. Originally, when I took the car in, I was going to have them also do whatever the warranty wouldn't cover, but the wanted $700 for installation of all four struts, and sway bar links. So I decided to just do that myself.

So when I complete that, THEN it'll be a full suspension rebuild.